Dutch Marijuana Coffee Shops Brace for Smoking Ban
June 30, 2008, 8:52 pm
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, coffee shop, ganja, hashish, hemp, holland, marijuana, weed
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, coffee shop, ganja, hashish, hemp, holland, marijuana, weed
Amsterdam, Netherlands — This city’s famed marijuana bars have weathered many challenges over the years and are still smoking. But now they face an unwelcome blast of fresh air: On July 1, the Netherlands will be one of the last European countries to ban smoking in bars and restaurants in compliance with EU law.
The Health Ministry says the ban will apply to cafes that sell marijuana, known as coffee shops. But this being Holland, which for centuries has experimented with social liberalism, there’s a loophole: The ban covers tobacco but not marijuana, which is technically illegal anyway.
But that still leaves coffee shops and their customers in a bind. Dutch and other European marijuana users traditionally smoke pot in fat, cone-shaped joints mixed with tobacco.
“It’s the world upside down: In other countries they look for the marijuana in the cigarette. Here they look for the cigarette in the marijuana,” said Jason den Enting, manager of coffee shop Dampkring.
Shops are scrambling to adapt. One alternative is “vaporizer” machines, which incinerate weed smokelessly. Another is to replace tobacco with herbs like coltsfoot, a common plant that looks like a dandelion and that smokers describe as tasting a bit like oregano.
But most shops are just planning to increase their sales of hash brownies and pure weed — and are hoping the law isn’t enforced.
Michael Veling, owner of the 4-20 Cafe and a board member of the Cannabis Retailers’ Union, said he expected a small decline in sales as smokers are forced to separate their nicotine addiction from their marijuana habit.
But he expects the long-term effects to be minimal. “It’s absurd to say that coffee shops will go bankrupt in the second week of July. Nonsense,” he said.
Veling is instructing his staff to send tobacco smokers outside, but he doesn’t expect all coffee shops to do the same. He said some owners will ignore the ban — and will probably get away with it, at least for a while.
But “if obeying the smoking ban becomes a condition of renewing your business license, just watch how fast it will happen,” he said. “That’s the way things work.”
Chris Krikken, spokesman for the Food and Wares Authority, charged with enforcing the ban, said his agency won’t be targeting coffee shops in particular.
“For the first month we’ll just be gathering information about compliance in a wide range of hospitality businesses. Depending on what we find, we may focus more squarely on a sector that’s lagging,” he said.
But he said individual businesses caught allowing customers to smoke will be warned and definitely checked again. “Repeat offenders will face escalating fines,” he said.
Marijuana possession is illegal in the Netherlands, but smokers are not prosecuted for holding up to 5 grams. Around 750 cafes — half of them in Amsterdam — are licensed to have up to 500 grams in stock at any one time.
The Dutch “tolerance” policy recognizes that some people will smoke pot regardless of laws, so it might as well happen in an orderly way. Critics complain this encourages substance abuse.
But cannabis abuse in Holland ranks somewhere in the middle compared to other nations and is lower than in the U.S., France and England, according to statistics compiled by the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime.
At the same time, the levels of THC — the main active chemical in marijuana — have soared in the past decade and are now at 16 percent in Dutch weed.
The U.S. government sounded the alarm earlier this month because THC in American marijuana has doubled to 9.6 percent since 1983, and it warned of recent scientific findings linking the drug to mental problems.
The Dutch government, currently led by a conservative coalition with a religious bent, is slowly squeezing back the number of coffee shops by not renewing licenses when shops close.
Growers are arrested, leaving coffee shop owners struggling to obtain their main product.
“The rules are being set to pester us out of business one by one, slowly but surely,” said Richard van Velthoven, manager at The Greenhouse, who said he feared being shut down for tobacco violations.
“I’ve taken the cigarette machines out, I’m putting Coltsfoot on the tables, I’ve bought extra vaporizers, the staff is watching out — what more can I do?” he said.
German tourist Lars Schmit said lamented the possible end of an era.
Without coffee shops, he said, “a little bit of Amsterdam will die.”
Source: Associated Press
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New Laws Have Tougher Penalties for Pot Growers
People who can’t pay fines for noncriminal traffic offenses will be able to pay off their debt through community service.
Aggravated abuse of an elderly person or disabled adult will be a first-degree felony. Law-enforcement personnel will be trained over the next three years to better recognize abuse.
Law-enforcement agencies will have to adopt written policies and procedures to be used when investigating missing-children and missing-adult reports.
June 30, 2008, 9:32 am
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, cannabis law, ganja, grow house, hemp, marijuana, pot, weed
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, cannabis law, ganja, grow house, hemp, marijuana, pot, weed
Starting Tuesday, a new state law will bring harsher penalties for marijuana growers.
Under the new Florida law, a “grow house” will be classified as a building containing 25 or more marijuana plants. Before, the threshold was 300 plants. The charge will remain a second-degree felony.
“Our laws were way out of date on that,” Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum told the Tallahassee Democrat .
The law also allows law-enforcement agencies to dispose of grow-house equipment after taking pictures or recording video.
Tallahassee police say that in the past, they have had to store every single marijuana plant and piece of equipment until the people arrested went to trial.
“The storage is expensive, and we spend a lot of time packaging the material, time we could be investigating other criminal activity,” said David McCranie, spokesman for the Tallahassee Police Department.
Also, it will be a third-degree felony for someone to own, lease or rent a place while knowing that it is being used for drug trafficking or making drugs.
Here are highlights of other new Florida laws taking effect Tuesday:
n Salvia divinorum , a plant native to Mexico, and Salvinorin A, both believed to cause hallucinogenic effects, will be illegal to possess or sell.
- People who have been wrongfully convicted of a crime and incarcerated in the state Department of Corrections system will be able to seek compensation.
Source:http://www.tallahassee.com/
Italy: Drug report 2007
June 27, 2008, 3:24 pm
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: 2007, arrested, cannabis, cocaine, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, heroin, italy, law, marijuana, report, repression, skunk
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: 2007, arrested, cannabis, cocaine, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, heroin, italy, law, marijuana, report, repression, skunk
The last report about the use of drug in 2007 admitted that in Italy use of cannabis is increased.
Last year 32413 people has been signaled to authorities: 73% for cannabis,16% for cocaine and 8% for heroin and 26985 people has been arrested, more than in 2006
The use of cocaine is increased in 2006,but not in 2007.On the other hand, in 2007 use of cannabis is increased and 14 Italians on 1000 between 15 and 64 years old have admitted and 14% had used cannabis more than one time in 2007.
320000 people has been cared for drug: 205000 for heroin and 154000 for cocaine.
84,6% of Italians are against the use of every drug and 89,8% believe is danger.70% is worried and 80% is against the use of cannabis. More people are against cannabis respect 2006.
I believe real number of cannabis smokers is more higher, and not so many people (80%) are against the use.
Younger Italians, particularly, are less worried about cannabis.
I’m afraid in 2009 a new and more strong wave of repression will beat us…
Higher Education Has a Different Meaning
June 26, 2008, 2:09 pm
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: bud, cannabis, cannabis grow, ganja, marijuana, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, Oakland, Oaksterdam, pot, weed
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: bud, cannabis, cannabis grow, ganja, marijuana, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, Oakland, Oaksterdam, pot, weed
Los Angeles, CA — Marijuana plant Like other universities, Oaksterdam offers wide-eyed pupils an enlightening classroom experience to spark their curiosity.
But at Oaksterdam, the homework assignments involve baking the perfect pot brownie, the lessons teach students how to greet DEA agents who’ve just kicked down the front door, and the diploma confers the status: certified budtender.
In a squatty building in the shadow of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, marijuana devotees pack classes at the unique trade school that teaches students how to grow and process marijuana, use the drug in baked goods and manage medical-marijuana dispensaries.Ilia Gvozdenovic, chancellor of Oakland-based Oaksterdam University, describes the nonaccredited school as a much-needed source of knowledge about marijuana in an age of misunderstanding.
“It’s kind of like the Wild West,” Gvozdenovic said, alluding to the confusion and conflict surrounding California state law allowing the sale of medical marijuana and the federal government’s refusal to acknowledge it.
“To me, the issue is we need better training for folks.”
The trade school, which will be holding classes this weekend in Los Angeles, boasts about 500 graduates since it was founded in Oakland in November.
Classes began in Los Angeles earlier this year. Students pay $250 for the weekend course and classes are scheduled through August.
The school sits in a part of downtown Oakland nicknamed “Oaksterdam,” where pot clubs and cafes line the streets as they do in Amsterdam, Holland, where smoking marijuana and hashish is tolerated.
Just teaching people how to grow and use marijuana isn’t enough to draw the wrath of the federal government, said Sarah Pullen, a Los Angeles spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“If they’re not distributing, selling or cultivating marijuana, I would imagine they’re not violating any federal laws,” she said.
Because of the conflict between California and federal law – and the vague wording in the state’s medical-marijuana law – some counties and cities have banned medical-marijuana dispensaries from opening, or have required a strict permit process.
Los Angeles has enacted a moratorium on the shops as it searches for a way to regulate them.
But with the White House changing hands next year, many medical-marijuana advocates are hopeful. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has indicated his government would take a hands-off approach to medical marijuana in states such as California.
Arizona Sen. John McCain’s would continue to back federal law and forbid it.
Federal drug authorities have raided more than 50 California dispensaries in the past two years but have barely nicked the surface. As one is shut down, others spring up, law enforcement officials concede.
While Oaksterdam University may be doing nothing technically illegal, federal anti-drug officials are not happy about its instructors training new crops of savvy dispensary owners.
“It’s too bad they’re taking people’s money and all they’re teaching them is how to violate federal law,” said Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
“Actually, I wonder whether the students will remember to even show up for class at all.”
There’s a lot to memorize in the world of weed. For one, marijuana comes in hundreds of varieties.
So would a cancer patient benefit most from some Panama Red or Purple Haze?
Would some Bubba Kush smooth away that anxiety problem?
And then there’s the problem of deciding whether to smoke it, eat it or drink it.
A good budtender would know, Gvozdenovic said.
“It’s very similar to a bartender, but for bud,” he said. It’s like “a bartender, psychologist and doctor.”
Some of the specifics are beyond the weekend survey courses held in Los Angeles. They won’t be hands-on, either – no cannabis plants or drugs will be allowed in the classroom.
But some of the material might include the science of nurturing a cannabis plant from a seedling and the art of preparing it for use as dried buds for smoking, mixing it with butter for cooking, or as a tincture or topical ointment.
At the end of the class, graduates receive a degree that proves them competitive candidates for careers at dispensaries, though it isn’t required.
Alumni, Oaksterdam claims, can make from $50,000 to $100,000 a year as a budtender at a medical-marijuana dispensary.
Marijuana activists across the nation see Oaksterdam University as a historic step toward legitimacy for their movement.
“We’re in the midst of an incredible, evolving epoch,” said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “The best practices today may put you in jail tomorrow. … Five years ago, this would not be possible and there would not be a need for it.”
St. Pierre and others said there’s still a long way to go.
“We’d like to see this type of commerce contributing to society just like any other commerce,” said Mason Tvert, executive director for Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation.
The Colorado-based group, which led to voters in Denver making marijuana possession the lowest law enforcement priority, says pot is safer than booze. And Tvert bemoaned what he sees as a double standard between the intoxicants.
“If this was a home-brewing class,” he said, “no one would really care.”
Note: Students learn skills to work in medical marijuana dispensaries.
Complete Title: These Days, Higher Education Has a Different Meaning
Source: Los Angeles Daily News (CA)
Website: http://www.dailynews.com
High Hopes for Medical Pot Users
June 26, 2008, 2:06 pm
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy | Tags: California, cancer, cannabis, ganja, marijuana, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, pot, weed
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy | Tags: California, cancer, cannabis, ganja, marijuana, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, pot, weed
California — It is almost certain that the 56 percent of California voters who approved Proposition 215 in an attempt to legalize medical use of marijuana did not intend for employers to discriminate against persons who take advantage of the law they passed.
As it has evolved since passage, the 1996 initiative lets cities and counties issue medipot usage cards to users who smoke the weed to ward off pain caused by ailments from migraine headaches to a wide variety of cancers. Where they exist, the cards can only be obtained with a doctor’s recommendation.
With that background, the question before the state Supreme Court earlier this year was whether an employer can fire a worker for using medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.Given that court’s longtime background as a bastion of civil liberties, most recently seen in a gay marriage decision very much in line with its tradition of ensuring Californians have even more rights than the U.S. Constitution guarantees, the answer was surprising.
Yes, the court said, a worker can be fired for using medipot with a doctor’s permission even if that use has zero effect on his or her job performance.
“The Compassionate Use Act (Proposition 215) does not eliminate marijuana’s potential for abuse or the employer’s legitimate interest in whether an employee uses the drug,” said the 5-2 majority opinion written by Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar.
She somehow thought she was backing up that statement by adding that “Under California law, an employer may require pre-employment drug tests and take illegal drug use into consideration in making employment decisions.” What about legal drug use, as defined by California voters?
The case itself was totally new judicial ground. Because California and only a few other states have okayed any form of legal medical marijuana use, no similar case has reached the U.S. Supreme Court, the only venue whose decisions form a binding precedent for the top state courts.
It’s clear the court majority reacted with a knee-jerk against any kind of pot use.
That’s essentially what dissenting Justices Joyce L. Kennard and Carlos Moreno said in their minority opinion. The court ruling “renders illusory the law’s promise that responsible use of marijuana” will not be penalized, they said.
In this case, neither employer RagingWire Communications of Sacramento nor anyone else ever claimed that computer technician Gary Ross was less than competent during the 11 days he worked there.
Rather, company lawyers said the firm feared it might be subject to federal raids if Ross stayed.
Federal agents have staged hundreds of raids on city- or county-sanctioned medical marijuana clinics and arrested many medipot growers. But never on those who employ users.
Prosecutors maintain federal laws making all uses of pot illegal trump the state initiative and any local ordinance designed to make it work. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in 2005, ruling Proposition 215 does not exempt medical marijuana users from prosecution, no matter how severe their illness.
So when a standard pre-employment test detected Ross’ pot use, the state’s high court said, RagingWire was free to bounce him even though he had shown his medipot card prior to the drug test.
When Ross sued, the company responded that it would “arguably be complicit in an activity that’s illegal under federal law” and might lose federal contracts if it kept Ross.
All this left medipot activists frustrated until the state Assembly in late May passed a bill essentially revoking the court decision. This putative law would let medipot patients work, like anyone else. But they could not smoke on the job.
Yet to be determined is whether the state Senate will go along.
If it does, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – an admitted pot smoker with no medical justification during his bodybuilding and movie days – would have to be a complete hypocrite to veto it.
If that law doesn’t pass, the message delivered by several medical marijuana backers at a news conference just after the court decision came down will stand. “People are going to endure pain and suffering because Supreme Court justices don’t feel marijuana has any medical value. It doesn’t matter what citizens and patients say. It doesn’t matter what doctors say.”
What’s more, the dissenting justices were absolutely correct in saying the decision, if it stands, means medipot users can be punished for trying to kill their pain. They would then continue to face what Kennard called a “cruel choice” between losing their jobs or giving up the only medication that provides significant comfort in coping with some illnesses and with cancer chemotherapy.
The ruling also opens up other problems for patients who use legal narcotics like morphine for pain.
They, too, could fail a drug test, get fired and have no legal recourse. For if employees can be dumped for using one drug, who’s to say they can’t also be fired for using another?
Thomas D. Elias is a syndicated columnist who covers California issues.
Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA)
Website: http://www.presstelegram.com/
Drug test in italian parliament
June 25, 2008, 6:52 pm
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: anti-drug, cannabis, cocaine, drug, drug-test, ganja, hashish, hemp, italian parliament, italy, law, marijuana, prohibitionism, skunk, war
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: anti-drug, cannabis, cocaine, drug, drug-test, ganja, hashish, hemp, italian parliament, italy, law, marijuana, prohibitionism, skunk, war
In October 2006 a popoular tv transmission (“Le iene”) had done a secret drug-test on 50 members of italian parliament.
The result was incredible: 1/3 of members use drugs.
The report was stopped and starded an incredible discussion:is it correct a secret drug-test for parliament’s member?
I think it isn’t correct,but:
-it wasn’t possibile recognize the members (the faces were obscurated and voices changed)
-the tests were mixed,so it wasn’t possible recognize whic test a members had used
-Italy has the strongest anti-drug law in Europe and one of the strongest in “occidental world”
-it was the first time for a drug-scandal among italian parliament’s members.Emilio Colombo (more than 80 years old) ammited he use cocaine as therapy (cocaine therapy…) and he didn’t suffered of restriction (as example jail,driving license and passaport suspended)
The tv-report was stopped,the trasmission fined and some party proposed drug-test for every members,but nothing has done.
On 10 june 2008 the italian supreme court condamned the transmission because the report “had demanged the public imagine and onorability of parliaments”.
Today, Carlo Giovanardi (the co-author of the anti-drug law,with Gianfranco Fini) has admitted that drug ,particularly cocaine, is diffused also in parliament.He said also drug test will be done for every category of workers that could be “on risk”.
He forget members of parliament…
Marijuana Laws Based on Fiction
June 25, 2008, 11:48 am
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, ganja, marijuana, marijuana law, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, pot, USA, weed
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, ganja, marijuana, marijuana law, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, pot, USA, weed
MARIJUANA LAWS BASED ON FICTION
It is amazing how ridiculous lies, propaganda and political opportunism still affect attitudes about marijuana. The pot laws were passed based on the most absurd racist fictions:
“Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.” ( Hearst newspapers nationwide, 1934. )
“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana can cause white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”
“Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality and death.”
“[Smoking] one [marihuana] cigarette might develop a homicidal mania, probably to kill his brother.” ( See U.S. Government Propaganda To Outlaw Marijuana — http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/t3.htm. )
Not one of these claims meets the standards of modern science, medicine or social knowledge. Indeed these Reefer Madness claims are generally rejected by the public. People are denied medical care, jobs are lost and yes, people are being jailed because of these odious lies. Nevertheless, legislators refuse to set the record straight by repealing policies that harm the public far more than any amount of marijuana use could ever do.
The absurdity of employment policies is that the victim of a pot law does not need to be under the influence of the drug to be fired. Merely using the drug off work can be detected for days or weeks. No impairment of any kind is needed.
Ralph Givens, Daly City, Calif.
Source: Albany Democrat-Herald (OR)
Website: http://www.democratherald.com/
Medical Marijuana prohibition. A very sick law.
Dr. Joycelyn Elders Visits Raleigh Wednesday
June 25, 2008, 11:35 am
Filed under: HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, ganja, hemp, illinois, Joycelyn Elders, marijuana, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, weed
Filed under: HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, ganja, hemp, illinois, Joycelyn Elders, marijuana, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, weed
North Carolina — Dr. Joycelyn Elders tells it straight. Her short tenure as U.S. Surgeon General under President Bill Clinton ended in 1994 after she suggested at a United Nations conference on AIDS that masturbation was a normal part of sexuality and suggested that “perhaps it should be taught” in order to reduce HIV infections. She’s called abstinence-only education “child abuse” and spoken out against the war on drugs.
Now almost 75, this sharecroppers’ daughter from Arkansas continues to lecture across the country on sex education, universal health care and public health approaches to dealing with illegal drugs.
She will speak in Raleigh Wednesday, June 25, to a committee of the N.C. General Assembly in support of a bill to authorize the study of medical marijuana.
Rep. Earl Jones (D-Guilford), sponsor of House Joint Resolution 2405, invited Elders to present research to dispel what he calls “misinformation” about the drug. “Once policy makers and public officials get educated on this issue, with accurate information based on science, they usually will do the right thing,” Jones said.
The Indy caught up with Elders by phone in advance of her visit.
What do you plan to tell the House Committee on Science and Technology about Rep. Jones’ bill?
The bill is to study the medical use of marijuana. We have millions of Americans who live every day with pain that’s not relieved by current medications, but is relieved by marijuana. It helps reduce nausea and vomiting and improve appetite for a lot of very ill cancer patients and patients with HIV. And it helps with neuropathic pain in people who have diabetes and multiple sclerosis.
We all want people to live the best life they possibly can, and you can’t live a good life if you have a lot of pain. Why not allow people to get relief from this, if their doctor prescribes it and if it can be issued by their pharmacist? Twelve states have already issued permits allowing patients who are seriously ill to use medical marijuana without fear of being arrested.
You’ve given testimony to several other state legislatures on this topic in the past. What responses do you hear?
People are very concerned that it would be a gateway for teenagers to start using marijuana. Well, there is no scientific evidence for that. In the states that have approved it and made it available, teenage marijuana use has decreased.
They also say there are legal drugs out there patients could use instead of marijuana. But marijuana is far less toxic than many of the drugs, like morphine and OxyContin, currently used for pain.
Marinol is an oral product that contains THC, thought to be the active ingredient in marijuana for relieving pain. Well, if you’re nauseated and take another pill, you’re going to throw up. It’s going to be two hours before it gets to the bloodstream, and you can’t control the dose. I understand people are concerned about the smoking. You can use a vaporizer and it gets to the lungs very quickly and immediately goes to the receptors in the brain. With the vaporizer, they don’t get too stoned before they get what they need.
Do you have hope that drug policies will change at the national level?
Yes. It needs to change at the national level, and I think it will. State by state, they’re coming around, and also as we get more research on the scientific basis on this medicine.
How did you come to take up this issue of medical marijuana?
I was concerned about this even before I became the surgeon general.
When I was state health director in Arkansas in 1986 and 1987, AIDS was a really big thing. At that time, we had almost no drugs for AIDS; we had AZT. Some patients were telling us if they smoked marijuana, they could take their medications longer and have much less nausea and vomiting.
Some scientific studies even back in the ’70s with cancer patients receiving chemotherapy showed marijuana was very helpful in reducing the nausea and side effects and stimulating their appetite.
If we could do something to make people feel better, that to me was a good thing. That’s what we’re about in medicine.
When I was surgeon general, I realized we had more than 2 million people in the prison system and the cost of keeping them there was something like $25,000 to $30,000 [per inmate] a year. The United States was warehousing so many young black men because they were smoking marijuana—not because of shooting somebody or committing a crime. That bothered me. We were spending millions and millions of dollars to crack down on people smoking marijuana and allowing the big drug kings to walk around.
I felt that we should treat marijuana almost like we do alcohol, and not make it a crime where people were hauled off and imprisoned.
What have you been doing since you left the Clinton administration?
I was a professor of public health at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. I retired 10 years ago. I’ve been on the speakers’ circuit. Right now, I’m working on a paper on contraceptive use in adolescents.
So you’re still active on the issue of teen pregnancy?
Oh, yes. I feel very strongly about that, and HIV/AIDS prevention, and developing health education for all of our children.
I’m also very concerned about health care for everybody. We don’t have a health care system. We have a very expensive sick care system, and we’ve got to change that.
You must be horrified by the Bush administration’s abstinence-only education policy.
Don’t even mention that. I get really mad. The people it really hurts the most are the ones we need to help the most.
Who are you supporting for president?
Mr. Obama. I think he’ll make an excellent president. Most of all, I’m so pleased he’s gotten young people excited. That’s what we need, young people out there taking our government back, demanding that we do the things we need to do that make good sense. We can’t continue to let our government abort common sense. They’re always talking about aborting fetuses; as far as I’m concerned, they’ve aborted common sense.
Elders will address the Committee on Science and Technology Wednesday, June 25 at 11:30 A.M. in the N.C. General Assembly Auditorium. For more information, visit the General Assembly’s Web site at: http://www.ncleg.net
Source: Independent Weekly (NC)
Website: http://www.indyweek.com/
llinois Cannabis Patient Julie
Medical-Pot Politics
June 24, 2008, 3:17 pm
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy | Tags: California, cannabis, ganja, marijuana, medical cannabis, pot, weed
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy | Tags: California, cannabis, ganja, marijuana, medical cannabis, pot, weed
California — For years various jurisdictions and law enforcement agencies have dragged their feet when it comes to implementing California’s Proposition 215, the initiative passed by voters in 1996 that allows patients with a recommendation from a licensed physician to grow, possess and use cannabis, or marijuana, without legal penalty. Last year three California counties, San Diego, San Bernardino and Merced, announced they would challenge the initiative itself, on the grounds that it is in conflict with federal law, which still — in defiance of the best scientific evidence — classifies marijuana as a drug with no known medical benefits and illegal under any circumstances.
Now that they have taken their case to the state appellate court level (having been rebuffed at the Superior Court level in December), however, their case is much more modest. Instead of challenging Prop. 215 itself, they are challenging a 2003 state law, Senate Bill 420, that sought to implement the law. Among other provisions, SB420 requires counties to set up a program to screen patients and issue patient ID cards. The program is voluntary, in that patients are not required to apply for cards, but the idea is that having a government-issued card will make encounters with law enforcement easier for all concerned.
San Diego and San Bernardino counties — Merced has dropped out of the suit and begun issuing ID cards — argued before a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego on Tuesday that this provision requires them to break federal law by aiding and abetting the use of a drug that is still strictly prohibited under federal law. They also argue that SB420 illegally changes Prop. 215, because under the California constitution only the voters can change a law approved by the voters through the initiative process. The appellate panel has 90 days to hand down a decision.
The two counties may have a case, although it’s a stretch on both counts. Courts have ruled, for example, that when the police are required to return medicine to patients they are acting as agents of the court and bear no legal liability. Insofar as SB420 makes ID cards and guidelines voluntary rather than mandatory for patients, it doesn’t change the law but only implements it. But however the court decides on those issues, the good news is that when this suit is settled, California’s basic medical marijuana law will still be in place.
A provision of the California constitution requires state and local officials to enforce state law rather than federal law when a perceived conflict exists with federal law, unless and until a court rules that federal law supersedes and invalidates state law. That hasn’t happened, and it’s not going to happen. State and local officials who are still dragging their feet need to do their duty and comply with the law.
Note: Two counties argue that implementing Prop. 215 would force them to violate federal drug laws.
Source: Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, CA)
Website: http://www.appeal-democrat.com
Elena’s marijuana
June 24, 2008, 1:01 pm
Filed under: HempTherapy | Tags: cannabis, elena, ganja, hashish, hemp, italy, marijuana, multiple sclerosis, persecuted, thc, therapeutic use, weed
Filed under: HempTherapy | Tags: cannabis, elena, ganja, hashish, hemp, italy, marijuana, multiple sclerosis, persecuted, thc, therapeutic use, weed
This video is only in italian:
This video narrates the story of Elena,affected by multiple sclerosis.
She is caring multiple sclerosis with cannabis and she doesn’t suffer of collateral disorders caused by normal drugs.
Elena discovered medical cannabis in Sovietic Union,and she continued with doctor Ada Francia in Italy.
She had bought cannabis in street from pushers (bad quality cannabis) so she decided to cultivate her medical cannabis.Police discovered it but luckily pm asked archiviation.
In February 2008 Elena received permission to buy medical cannabis from Holland (90 gr for 824 euro,one month of treatment).This type of cannabis is not good enough and she didn’t received cannabis for the month later.Currently she keeps on curing his illness with cannabis,but in illegal way…
I believe i should be free to smoke cannabis without be persecuted,but therapeutic use MUST be free.
It is an injustice that people like Elena and other ones suffering of illnesses are persecuted and can’t treat themselves in the better way.
